Tag Archives: Midnight in Paris

2018, Recent Reviews, Reviews

Apostle (2018): A Better, Modern Wicker Man

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After receiving a desperate letter from his younger sister explaining that she has been taken captive by a cult on a remote island, Thomas (Dan Stevens; The Guest) is forced to join the cult in an attempt to save her. He has been dealing with his own personal issues after traumatic events left him in a mental breakdown but must put his needs aside to help the one person in his family that always believed in him. He ventures to the island to find it led by a charismatic “Prophet” named Malcolm (Michael Sheen; Midnight in Paris) who claims to be the voice of the island’s god, a being referred to only as The Lady. The film marks the English language debut of Gareth Evans best known for writing and directing the incredible Indonesian action series The Raid.

Apostle relies on drab visuals to represent the cult’s condition. The island has been developed with houses, churches, and farmland, but nothing in the production design communicates levity or joy. The cast almost exclusively wears cool, dark colors favoring muted blues, browns, and blacks. Buildings look worn from inclement weather and every daytime scene takes place under heavily overcast skies. The few characters that show signs of positive emotions soon face events that remove their happiness making for a downtrodden, gloomy community.

Thomas’s constant unease extends to the audience.

Evans successfully moves in a new direction, which may disappoint some. Fans of The Raid series looking for a continuation of the kinetic martial arts, will not be satisfied here. The film is closer to the thriller genre and relies more on tension and mystery than action. There are a few action scenes and their swift brutality reminds of Evans’s previous work, but they are few in number. The tension is created by Thomas’s infiltration of the cult. The severe consequences of being deemed a traitor or “blasphemer” are established early which makes every decision potentially lethal. Stevens displays the constant unease of the situation and appears to be looking over his shoulder at every opportunity. There are also questions surrounding the group’s unusual rituals and beliefs that may have some supernatural basis that further raise the stakes on Thomas’s mission and deepen the mystery.

The film feels like a modern, violent update to The Wicker Man. It also features a man going to save a young woman from a religious group living in isolation on an island, but Apostle takes the premise much further. It doesn’t immediately condemn people for having their own beliefs, but it also points out their moral inconsistencies. It delves into the fine line between speaking the good word and becoming a demagogue and shows how easily someone can shift between the two. Malcolm founded the community with idealist beliefs but, on the verge of famine, he has turned to kidnapping an innocent woman for ransom money. The struggles he faces test his rectitude and willingness to compromise. Other leaders are less steadfast and, while preaching virtues to others, violate them when personal issues arise. Exploring the drastic consequences of making small concessions to personal beliefs gives Apostle moral complexity to bolster its taut mystery.

4/5 stars.

2016, Recent Reviews, Reviews

Assassin’s Creed (2016)

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Finally rounding out the year’s lineup of video game adaptations is Assassin’s Creed. The popular video game franchise launched in 2007 and sparked eight mainline sequels and several more spinoffs selling over 90 million copies across the games. Unlike many adaptations, the premise, while far-fetched, provides an intriguing setup for a blend of sci-fi and historical action. After he is executed by lethal injection, Callum Lynch (Michael Fassbender; Shame) wakes up in a strange research facility with Sophia Rikkin (Marion Cotillard; Midnight in Paris), a scientist leading the Animus project. The Animus, a giant mechanical arm that connects to the spinal cord of the user, taps into data stored in DNA to relive the memories of ancestors. Sophia and her father want to use Callum to find the Apple of Eden, a mysterious object that can control humanity, through his ancestor Aguilar (also played by Fassbender), an Assassin during the Spanish Inquisition who is the last person they know to have had it.

The film spends far too much time on exposition. This is a common mistake in storytelling in interactive entertainment but ironically it was never an issue in the early Assassin’s Creed games. The games would have the player in the historical setting for at least 80% or more of the time, but the screenplay calls for the majority of the film to be in the present so they can explain the adversarial history of the Assassins and the Templars. The games threw you into the action and let the player, along with the main character, discover the greater story as they played, but the screenwriters here instead opted to stuff in as much setup as possible for the sequels that were clearly in mind at the film’s conception. The movie opens with an explanatory text crawl that is groan-worthy and further exposition is always just around the corner. Unfortunately, all this additional explanation only weakens the story. Each further detail creates plot holes rather than filling them. If the writers had been willing to leave more unanswered, the backstory would have been intriguing rather than perplexing or, in many cases, silly.

The film spends too much time in the present trying to rationalize its setup.
The film spends too much time in the present trying to rationalize its setup.

Justin Kurzel (Macbeth) is able to fluidly adapt the series’s action. Known for incorporating an acrobatic style based on using counter attacks, the fighting could have easily felt distant without the interactive element. This happened in 2010 with Ubisoft’s other major film production, Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, where the signature parkour didn’t translate to the big screen. Combat is clearly sped up, but the increased speed isn’t overly disorienting. Kurzel also makes the unexpected decision to transition back and forth between Aguilar fighting in the past and Callum fighting through the same experiences in the present. Doing so adds an extra dimension to the action (literally) as we see how Callum is affected by his time in the Animus.

This is the second time this year we’ve had a talented indie director take on a large video game movie and the result is again a moderate success. Kurzel was able to maintain some of the harsh realism found in his previous work as he moved to this larger project. The historical scenes don’t try to emulate the lighthearted tone of Marvel films or the self-seriousness of the DC extended universe. The world feels dirty and unforgiving. He also has the benefit of an incredibly talented and, more importantly, committed cast. Even minor roles have their moments with actors like Brendan Gleeson (In Bruges) stopping by to add gravitas to the screenplay. Kurzel isn’t able to escape the forced exposition typical of the genre, but the unique premise combined with his gritty staging of action scenes make the film stand out in the crowded blockbuster space.

3/5 stars.

2016, Recent Reviews, Reviews

Café Society (2016)

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Café Society continues Woody Allen’s love affair with the past. While Midnight in Paris had him going back to the 1920s, here we have a glossy depiction of the 1930s. Jessie Eisenberg (The Social Network) plays Bobby, a young Jewish man from New York City who moves to Hollywood hoping that his successful agent uncle Phil (Steve Carell; The Office) will give him a job. Deliberately estranged from his family and career focused, Phil ignores Bobby for weeks until finally offering him work doing odd jobs. Since Bobby doesn’t know anyone in the city yet, Phil asks his secretary Vonnie (Kristen Stewart; Clouds of Sils Maria) to show him around town. Bobby soon falls for Vonnie and even though she clearly has feelings for him, she can’t reciprocate because she is already in another relationship.

The film is decidedly safe territory for Allen. The tropes are well worn with the characters almost prewritten. Bobby is Allen’s typical protagonist, meaning he is Woody Allen himself, but the performance is inconsistent. Eisenberg oscillates between his own shtick, the fast talking staccato phrases from The Social Network, to Allen’s self-deprecating nervous ticks. The standout performance is Kristen Stewart’s. Her anti-commercial attitude contrasts nicely with the materialist celebrities and big shots Phil socializes with and makes her the one down-to-earth person in a Hollywood filled with superficiality. The clothes she wears only add to her appeal and further distinguish her. The other characters are dressed in period appropriate clothing but Vonnie’s outfits, while perhaps overly twee, are more like a present-day fashion brand’s lineup of ’30s inspired clothing than something actually of the era. They add a modern twist to the old fashioned elegance. Vonnie’s combination of unique personality and looks make it only natural for Bobby to be so deeply interested in her.

Allen and Storaro take the "Golden Age of Hollywood" quite literally.
Allen and Storaro take the “Golden Age of Hollywood” quite literally.

The film leans heavily on its visuals. The famous cinematographer Vittorio Storaro (Apocalypse Now) lovingly recreates the era. This is Allen’s first film shot digitally and he and Storaro take full advantage of the format’s advantages when it comes to color correction. Scenes alternate between being shot in sepia tone and bathed in golden light from a sun that appears to be constantly at dusk. Does it make sense that everything seems take place before sundown? No, but it doesn’t matter. Their goal is to capture nostalgia and they achieve it. This artifice sometimes removes the scenes from any sense of reality, but is worth it for the gorgeous colors.

It’s the lack of emotional involvement that ultimately debilitates the film. There are brief moments when complications arise in Vonnie and Bobby’s relationship that entice, but most of the film is only engaging because of its visuals. Characters seem to be defined by quirky mannerisms rather than internal motivations. These idiosyncrasies can be momentarily amusing but aren’t enough to build any character depth. Even Vonnie, the film’s best and most fully developed character, eventually becomes like the other Hollywood socialites. Her previously attractive traits are gone and with them the film’s charm.  Like many of the stars at Phil’s parties, Café Society is visually attractive, unoffensive, and provides a few laughs, but isn’t substantial enough to stop it from joining the list of Woody Allen movies no one will be able to remember a few years from now.

3/5 stars.